Windchase
by rabbitastrophe
Summary: What if a quick brush with death is all it takes for them to feel alive?


p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""By Merlin's balls, em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"what are you doing here?"/em Hermione Granger screamed, her voice swallowed by howling, raging winds./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"He laughed and if there was something manic in his voice, he didn't give a rat's ass about it. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""Don't you see Granger? There's a tornado and it's coming straight at us!"/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"If people had told him that at age twenty-two, he would be in America, chasing tornados with a bunch of misfits and lost Slytherins, he would have laughed in their faces, asked them what they had been drinking and could he please have some? He would have laughed until his ribs hurt and probably em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"avada/em them because – well, the Dark Lord would have asked him to, right? /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Luckily, Tom Riddle was thrice-dead, the Boy-who-lived was merry and happy and about to marry the Weaslette and he was in America./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"His parents believed he was going through puberty and needed em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"a change of pallet/em, Narcissa had said. Dip your wick where no one could see (read, no one important, here) and come back to us so I can marry you to a pretty nice girl I would have hand-picked for you./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"He wondered why his mother was hellbent on choosing someone for him. He doubted it was for his own good. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Yet, the girl he really wanted was standing in front of him, her fists on her hips, disregarding the F3 tornado that was traveling em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"fast/em towards them. He laughed, grabbed her hand and dragged her in the nearing /"Don't touch me, you moron! You never told me we would be hunting tornadoes, for pity's sake! What is this?" br /"Come on Granger! Where is your Gryffindor courage? This is just a tiny, tiny tornado and we have em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"magic!/em'/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She screamed when a twenty-meter beam rushed at their heads. He threw her down to the ground, muttered a em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Protego/em around them. He was inches away from her lips, from her mouth and he could see cars lifting from the ground, trees uprooting. The roof of that barn ripped off from the building and he was em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"alive/em and em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"powerful/em and fuck, there was nothing better than em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"living/em. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"He rolled on his back, her hand clutched in his. Her shirt was wet, clinging to pale skin; her hair stuck to her face. He looked around him and over them, above them, around them, the wind howled and screamed and raged and rubbles traveled space around them. He chuckled – and he heard her too and soon they were laughing, in the clutches of death but not quite dead yet. Magic surrounded them and who would have told him he would share this moment with Hermione bloody Gryffindor Granger? /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Back from a divorce from the Weasle, in search of something to live for – well maybe she had found it, maybe he had found it. br /"You're completely crazy!" she screamed in his ear./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"He laughed at her. The house they had rushed out from broke from her foundations and lifted and was thrown on the ground around them. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"Sheer destruction. No dead yet; they had been alone. So perfect – such a perfect storm. He wondered, if he lifted em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"protego/em for a brief second, if he could manage to have them lift off in the winds, and if he could apply it em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"just in time/em, you know? /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;""I hate you, you know?" she screamed and he looked at her dark, dark eyes and he smirked. "I know, love, don't worry." /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"The winds died down, slowly, around them. Rubble was spread out everywhere around them but they were safe, they were /"Can't wait until the next one," she whispered. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She looked well-spent, well-sexed. Her hair was standing straight around her, her clothes were tore. He must look a fright too, but he didn't care./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"He never thought he would end up here with her. It looked like they had been chasing the same thing, at the same moment: a brief moment to feel alive. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"She was a fine companion to chase death, he decided right then. /span/p 


End file.
